In military operations, troops and equipment are continually subject to ambush and attack from all directions, including those utilizing hand held weapons and concealing themselves.
Perhaps the biggest threats facing military vehicles today are Rocket Propelled Grenades (RPG's) that are fast moving, highly explosive and damaging projectiles which can easily be fired on a tank or military vehicle from a single enemy combatant's shoulder. RPG's are extremely dangerous because they are so portable, but still are very damaging to even the most heavily armored tank or truck, and are fast moving enough that they cannot be manually neutralized.
In light of the dangers presented by RPG's, as well as other projectiles that may be fired upon military vehicles, there is clearly a need to equip military vehicles with a defense device to engage and destroy any projectile coming at the vehicle. There are, in fact, a number of such defense devices and mechanisms known in the prior art. Generally, such defense devices comprise military vehicles equipped with incoming projection recognition means and a countermeasure that is launched to engage the incoming projectile prior to impacting the vehicle. Various defensive vehicle protection systems are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,202,809; 6,720,907; and U.S. Patent Applications US2004/0056792 and US2007/0180983. In each disclosure, the defensive vehicle protection system detects a projectile and calculates its path and impact, calculates an intercept point for the incoming projectile, and launches a countermeasure to intercept the incoming projectile. All of those actions must be done with great speed and precision to defeat an incoming projectile. It is also necessary that the defensive vehicle protection system have the capability to detect and intercept multiple incoming projectiles from different locations, requiring the need to select the most immediate threat and launch countermeasures in response to the multiple incoming threats.
To carry out this purpose, the defensive vehicle protection system must first be able to detect when a valid launch has occurred and distinguish the firing of a weapon from other flashes of light or heat. This is typically done by looking at the detected thermal signature characteristics of a suspected weapon launch, for example heat intensity/temperature and size of the flash, and then comparing the detected thermal signature characteristics to stored data for various weapons, including an RPG launcher. Next, the verification is confirmed by the presence of an incoming projectile from the direction of the suspected weapon launch.
Prior art devices and systems utilizing such weapon launch detection do not, however, take subsequent steps after detection of incoming projectiles to precisely determine the launch point and/or fire an offensive weapon to neutralize the weapon (such as an RPG launcher) or the shooter. The disadvantage of not immediately firing back is that another projectile can be launched from the weapon and, if the countermeasure has not had time to be reset and reloaded, or if the weapon has been moved to a different vantage point, the vehicle and all of its occupants are left vulnerable. Insofar as the weapon being fired is the primary threat, it is most advantageous to use a system and munition that is directed to eliminating the weapon first and the shooter second.
The present invention is thus directed to a counter offensive weapon system for eliminating a weapon, such as an RPG launcher, that fires upon a vehicle, and the shooter of the weapon, by utilizing information gathered by a defensive vehicle protection system after detection of an incoming projectile. As set forth in more detail herein, the counter offensive weapon system of the present invention utilizes some data acquired by a vehicle defense system, and then calculates the precise position of the weapon and shooter and fires an offensive weapon back at the weapon and shooter to neutralize them. An accurate air burst munition is programmed to detonate just before reaching the weapon and shooter to create a dispersed blast with the highest likelihood of eliminating the weapon.